dragSTER – Anti-Everything – album review

Coventry’s dragSTER release their new album soon, Guitarist and founder Diesel has said “Anti-Everything came about from a real feeling of being manipulated by those with power who seem to see individual thought, art, and free speech as a threat” Fighting Boredom have been listening to the album, read what we thought below.

There is one thing that makes this album a game changer. Sure the guitar’s sound as clear, nasty and hard as blood splashed on snow and the beats and bass pound like your head the morning after too much of everything but the difference is the voice, that gravel coated, sweet angry roar of emotion straight from the soul of rock’n’roll, and by rock’n’roll I mean all of those that meant it, a crooked, unbroken line right from the dudes with the combed back greased hair and cigarettes tucked into their sleeves through the skiffle nutters, the long haired lunatics that broke away in the sixties and the punked up kids in the seventies through the bristles, studs and mayhem into the new decade. It never ever stopped, it just kept on screaming at the people trying to keep it down, it’s a rallying call to all of us. You know damned well what I mean. If you’ve ever watched Lemmy tell you he plays Rock’n’Roll, if you’ve ever danced hand in hand in the middle of a bunch of like minded hooligans you know. It’s whatever you want to call it man, but mostly, and underneath it all, it’s rock and roll. Why do you think so many of us have quiffs, we know the noise, we’re fucking hip.

I digress, but there will be no apologies, where was I. Yes, the voice, that voice that flows like cheap whiskey down your throat, it catches you and makes you feel. This is visceral music, you don’t just listen, it grabs you by the neck and shakes you all over. That’s how this record moves, loud, shiny and fucking huge. It’s by no means a new sound, but it’s a sound that’s rarely been done better. I don’t for the life of me give a flying one where punk started and whether it’s still valid, listen to this and you’ll know. They give every drop of sweat and smear of blood into the sound, it’s made from bruises, tears and laughter. This music is what has come from years of graft, of playing everywhere they can, of skipping work and dodging hangovers, of listening to every type of record they can do and melting it all down to a pure bar of gold adrenaline and noise. I don’t know if dragSTER really even know how good they are right now. I’ve listened to this over and over and I’m pretty sure I don’t either. This record fucking rocks, and rolls.

It’s an angry record, the music is tight as and loud enough to match. You’ll have heard Damned, the rest of the album takes on a punk shaded loud rock’n’roll groove, it’s infectious as fuck and fun, really made for shouting along to and getting very drunk to. But the best song is almost at the end of the album,‘Broken by Design’ is a heavy call for help, a broken soul in need of solace, the chorus of‘got to get myself fixed cos I know I’m broke’, it’s somewhere we all end up and needs shouting about as hard and loudly as we ever can. As someone said, in these times of hatred and anger, kindness is the real rebellion, be a part of this, be a part of dragSTER, they may be anti everything but if you stand with them they will understand and they will let you in. They are dragSTER. They play Rock’n’Roll.